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epitome of incomprehensibility
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One of my challenges growing up was when to do this and when not to.
Age seven is the age of reason. I *did* have a reason for refusing to write a cursive "z": it was because it didn't adhere to the spirit of the original letter. It was WAY too loopy! It didn't look like a Z at all!! Z was a zigzag!!! In the lesson where this un-zed-like abomination was first introduced, I flat-out refused to copy the shape, creating an argument with my longsuffering grade 1-2 teacher.
In retrospect, this was not a battle I should have picked. Or maybe it was? Because it's funny. In retrospect.
Days ago, I meant to write about the report_cards my dad found in the basement and gave to me. They were a bit discouraging and, even now, somewhat embarrassing: I realized I'd been a massive pain in the ass for most of my elementary school teachers.
...
But when is it noble or at least reasonable to refuse to follow orders?
It's at least thirty years since the cursive Z thing. I'll be working at a voting table in the Quebec election on Monday. We're supposed to greet people in French: Bonjour.
That's fine. That's reasonable. But the next instruction is silly: if the voter wants to speak English, we're supposed to ask them if they're either Indigenous or went to school in English - only if they say yes can we continue the conversation in English. (The elections training manual has questions to ask to this effect - in English.) If they say no to both, we're supposed to continue in French, but explain things slowly.
There isn't that much to say to voters anyway. But you might, for instance, need to show people how to fold the ballot - they could be voting for the first time or forget how they did it last time.
Anyway, I resolved that if someone wants to speak English I'll just speak English to them. Not just because it's easier for me, but also on principal.
It's much faster to switch languages than to ask extra questions. And those questions would probably just irritate your average anglophone. So my reason for rebelling this time is that I don't WANT to be a pain in the ass.
But I guess my resolve partly depends whether the seatmate I get is a stickler for rules; I'm better (worse?) at being peer-pressured than authority-pressured. Would there even be pressure from authority? I doubt the supervisor will hover around to see if their "scrutateurs" and "scrutatrices" are following that particular instruction.
Then again, there's a slight doubt to this doubt: could I get fired for rebelling? That would not be worth it. I could use the money.
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